The history of Caxias do Sul, one of the main municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, officially begins with the Italian colonization of the region, which started in 1875. However, indigenous tribes had lived there since ancient times, but were displaced to make way for the European settlers. The beginning of the settlement was difficult, being an area of thick virgin forest. However, quickly the forest was opened up and the first crops and livestock began to bear fruit. In 1890 trade was already flourishing and industries started to multiply. The primitive village, at the time a district of São Sebastião do Caí, was already showing signs of self-sufficiency enough to be emancipated, becoming a village governed by a provisional Council, and soon by a Municipal council and an Intendancy.
Overview The first decades of the new municipality were turbulent. Settler groups came from various regions of Italy, some even from other countries, and had often conflicting worldviews and interests. At the same time, the state political context was agitated by constant ideological and partisan disputes, which had repercussions in the colonial area. Many episodes of violence and disagreement occurred, and the power structure proved unstable. In the midst of the disparities, the Catholic religion, common to all, revealed itself as a powerful gathering element, through which the divergences converged for the achievement of collective purposes, the Church acquiring a great influence in the destiny of the city for many decades.
At the beginning of the 20th century, society had already been structured, the initial difficulties related to survival had been overcome, and a solid cultural body began to form through the activity of artists, intellectuals, journalists, and other actors. Several social, recreational and sports clubs were founded, education improved, the urban nucleus grew rapidly and was embellished by monuments and stylish buildings, the urban infrastructure gained body, industry and commerce were solidly based in a network of cooperatives and associations, and the rural area developed great productivity, beginning a phase of important exports of a variety of fresh and processed products. In the political sphere, disputes continued, although the crises were less frequent and less dramatic. The result of this period is the formation of a differentiated and original local culture, in a mixture of Italian and Brazilian elements, in which the awareness of an inheritance from the ancient Italian civilization and the progress achieved become a reason for pride and self-affirmation.
With the establishment of the Estado Novo the federal government imposed a rapid "Brazilianment" of the region and began a process of repression and suppression of the signs of "Italianness". The compulsory cultural uprooting generated a deep identity crisis for the locals, which would only begin to be overcome in the 1950s. At this point, Caxias had already become one of the most important cities in the state, with a strong and diversified economy and a culture in full expansion. The colonial world had been left behind. The growth of the city started to attract migrants from the countryside and other parts of the state in search of new opportunities, and at the same time, the typical problems of the big cities started to appear, with strong social stratification and income inequality.
Since then the pace of growth only accelerated, with its positive and negative aspects, and its population, with a continuous influx of large groups of diverse origins, became highly heterogeneous, leaving the descendants of Italians in a minority. Today, Caxias do Sul has more than 470,000 inhabitants and is one of Brazil's biggest cities. Much of its past has been lost by the dissolution of old traditions, by the demolition of most of its primitive architectural patrimony, and by the cosmopolitanism that prevails today. However, a large group of researchers is engaged in studying the local history and preserving what still remains of material and immaterial testimonies of this history, and official institutions are beginning to realize the importance of rescuing the collective memory through museums, archives, protection of historical buildings, and promotion of cultural activities that revisit the past and try to integrate it with the present.
Early colonization
"Ethnic cleansing" in Southern Brazil Inhabited since immemorial times by nomadic Kaingang indigenous people. In the XVII century, the region where Caxias do Sul would be born was visited by Jesuit missionaries, who tried to found missions there, but without success. The presence of Father Cristóvão de Mendoza, who was killed by the natives in 1635, was registered in the district of Santa Lúcia do Piaí. A little before 1790, the lands where today is the Fazenda Souza district were occupied by Inácio Souza Corrêa, a soldier of the Santo Antônio da Patrulha detachment, who founded an estancia for breeding mules. But the effective settlement would only gain momentum with the arrival of waves of Italian immigrants from 1875. For the settlement to occur, the Indians who occupied the area were violently displaced by the action of killers of indigenous called "bugreiros".
The crisis in Italy and the Brazilian context
In the early 1870s, Italy, still suffering from the problems of the Wars of Unification, began to face the consequences of the worldwide economic recession of 1873–74. In addition, unfavorable competition with grain produced in North America disrupted the Italian agricultural economy, causing rural exodus, a decline in craft trades and food production, and the emergence of a surplus population in the cities with no qualifications for urban work. The result was famine and impoverishment, and the solution found was emigration.
In Brazil at the time, the slave system was being undermined with the prohibition of the slave trade in 1850 and the promulgation of the Rio Branco Law in 1871, causing the reduction of cheap labor supply, generating the idea of employing free workers in a productive model of small family farms. However, the settlers had to be white, to "whiten" the country's population. Brazil had already encouraged German immigration before, and the initiative was considered a success. In 1870, the Imperial Government had handed over to the Provincial Government a large area of unoccupied land in the high mountains of northeastern Rio Grande do Sul with the intention of populating it. In the same year, the demarcation of the new Conde d'Eu and Princesa Isabel colonies began, and in 1871, two firms were hired to look for candidates (up to forty thousand colonists over ten years), mainly Germans and Austrians: Caetano Pinto & Irmão, and Holtzweissig & Co. But, by the end of the 19th century, the political situation had changed and the difficulties imposed by the new Brazilian and German legislation no longer attracted Germans and Northerns. The initial objectives were not fulfilled, and the rate of immigration was much lower than expected. Thus, Italy, which at this time was facilitating the departure of a large population, became the preferred country for the search of settlers.
Driven by the desire of "far l'America" ("to make America"), and deluded by the promises of the Brazilian government and the legends about the Cockaigne, an imaginary country full of easy riches that was identified with Brazil, great waves of Italians began to arrive in the country in the precarious conditions of overcrowded ships where deaths from hunger and disease were common. Initially, they were destined for the coffee plantations in São Paulo, and after the demarcation of the colonies in Rio Grande do Sul, the surplus was being sent there. They entered the state via the Rio Grande river and disembarked in Porto Alegre, where they stayed at the "Immigrants' House" until they took smaller boats to São Sebastião do Caí, from where they continued on foot, in carts, or on horseback to the top of the mountains.
The arrival and settlement of immigrants
After an exploratory expedition headed by Luiz Antônio Feijó Júnior, in 1874 a new colonial nucleus was created with about 15 square leagues to the east of the Conde d'Eu and Princesa Isabel colonies, initially called Colônia a Fundos de Nova Palmira, which was the origin of the city of Caxias do Sul, and whose headquarters was then located in Nova Milano. The first Italian settlers headed to this new destination began to arrive in 1875. The immigrants' way from Caí was through the "Picada dos Boêmios", a trail opened in 1872 by some immigrants from Bohemia who were already living within the limits of the colony. After the ascent, they were installed in a collective shed in Nova Milano, waiting for the distribution, by the Land Commission officials, of the lots, seeds, and basic tools for agricultural work, which could take months to happen.
The occupation of the current urban region of Caxias do Sul in the new headquarters founded in Travessão Santa Teresa, the so-called Sede Dante, around the current Dante Alighieri square, only began on 30 May 1876. Another early settlement center was the São Romédio Community, considered the cradle of the city, where a more or less independent communal life was first structured, founded at the end of 1876, and where to this day the São Romédio Church is located, a historical and cultural heritage of the state and center of community life.
They were mostly young families from the Veneto region, making up about 71% of the total. Approximately 23% of them were Austrians from the Tyrol (Trento region), 2% Brazilians, and the rest from other origins such as France, Spain, and England. The lots were chosen by the immigrants themselves from among those available, were not free, and had to be repaid to the government in a few years. Once the choice was made, they received a provisional ownership title and moved to other shacks in the "crossings" or "lines", the first roads, and began the work of their settlement, cutting down the forest, building the house, and planting the first subsistence crops. While the house was not ready and agriculture did not bear its fruits, their sustenance came from gathering, hunting, selling wood, some official aid in cash and food, and from working for the government, taking part in the demarcation of new lots and the opening of roads. However, not all were farmers, a portion of the immigrants practiced trades and moved to the urban centers. The farmers established residence in the rural area, on the land received, and those who had more resources also acquired plots in the Sede. In 1877, when the area was named "Colônia Caxias", there were already about two thousand people settled.
The organization of the farm was extremely simple. A rustic wooden house, sometimes of adobe or stone, divided into a large kitchen where the focolaro (the heating fire) was located, a living room, a few bedrooms, and an attic or basement for storage. Next to it were a stable, a gunroom, a pigsty, and a chicken coop. Often the kitchen was located in a separate room from the main body of the house, because the fire was kept burning all day long. A vegetable garden was also planted, in addition to the main crops. As slave labor was forbidden in the colony,The colony was founded in 1875, still under the Brazilian slave regime, which was abolished in 1888. There were many slaves in Rio Grande do Sul, but government orders prohibited their employment in the colony. all activities were carried out by the family. The initial establishment was not easy and poverty was the rule.